The introduction of electric vehicles in the private fleet: Potential impact on the electric supply system and on the environment. A case study for the Province of Milan, Italy

The study analyses the possible impact of the electric vehicles' recharging activities on the electric supply system for the Province of Milan and on the global environment with a 2030 time horizon. In particular, the impact on the electric grid is seen both in terms of total electric energy consumption and in power requested to the grid. Because of the long recharging time required by the car batteries, the probability to have thousands of cars contemporary plugged-in at a given time is not negligible. On the other hand, the impact on the environment is seen in terms of CO2 emissions reduction. Even if, at the moment, the Italian electric energy mix is mainly generated by means of thermal power stations making use of not renewable fossil fuels, the efficiency of these plants is much higher than the efficiency of a vehicle's engine. Results obtained clearly show that electric vehicles can contribute to the overall CO2 abatement strategy in the transport sector but at the same time without an appropriate regulation (e.g. the intelligent integration of electric vehicles into the existing power grid as decentralised and flexible energy storage asset), electric vehicles could heavily impact on the daily requested electric power. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.